Sorry this is a little late! I didn't have much time to work on it.
Jasper POV
"Damn it!" Peter cursed. "I didn't want to go back to Maria, I didn't. Jasper, I am so sorry."
"That's okay," I said. "When will we leave?"
He stopped a few feet away from the car. "What do you mean, 'we'?"
"I thought we were going to Maria," I said, confused.
"No. I am going to Maria. You will stay here safe with your coven."
"But I have to go so that she can see my wounds."
Peter rolled his eyes. "You thought I would take you into danger? Of course not, Jasper. I am going to take pictures of your injuries-"
"I think you'll need to bring him, Peter." Carlisle interrupted. "Otherwise he'll be worried about you and panicking the whole time you're gone. And Maria will need to see the wound with her own eyes, will she not? She will need to extract the fluids inside from it and match it with the venom samples she has, so she can see if she still has the correct one."
Peter scowled, hating to admit that Carlisle was right.
"And I think I should go with you," Emmett decided. "I want to go with him."
"No, Emmett." Peter's voice was firm. "You will be useless there. There is no point in having you come along."
"I don't want to let him go without me. He needs me to protect him," Emmett insisted as Peter walked past him and sat me in the back seat of the white Sorento, buckling me in and putting the blanket over me again.
"Emmett, I said you will be useless. You wouldn't know the first thing about fighting her if it turned violent, you fool." His tone was harsh. "You'd only end up getting yourself killed."
Emmett looked crestfallen. "But-"
"No!"
This time he didn't even bother to respond. The car was utterly silent as we drove back to the airport. Of course, I had to walk once we got there, and each step was agonizing, though Carlisle helped me.
"Just a few more steps," he murmured, finally sitting me down on the plane. After so long standing and walking, I was exhausted.
"All right," Peter began, looking at Carlisle. "As soon as we get back to your place, Jasper, Emmett, you, and I will leave-"
"You're letting me come?" Emmett was thrilled.
"Yes. I think Jasper would feel safer with you there." He was obviously lying. He knew that I knew how useless Emmett would be in a real fight.
Emmett grinned at me.
Before I knew it, we were in Forks and Carlisle's arm was around my waist, helping me walk again. The minute we left the airport, I was being coddled again. They insisted on helping me into the car and having a blanket over me so I wouldn't get sicker, and someone had to be watching me at all times in case I fainted or something.
When we got home, they packed up more clothes and left me in the car to wait on them. So I wouldn't get cold, they said. But I was starting to wonder if I was just a burden on them.
Peter got into the driver's seat and Emmett slid into the back next to me. I leaned into his side gratefully.
Carlisle handed me a white cup full of blood for me to drink on the way, and he got into the passenger side.
"You tired, Jas?" Emmett asked me.
I shook my head. I was lying, of course, but I wasn't ready to go to sleep.
Emmett carefully put his arm around my shoulders. I wished he would quit treating me like I was fragile as glass. I wasn't that sick yet, was I?
I dozed during the long drive with my head on Emmett's shoulder. Sometimes I heard humming, but I didn't know who it was.
"Jas, wake up, we're here." Emmett nudged me gently. I raised my head and looked around in confusion.
We were on a farm, with a large barn and a farmhouse. I could hear the sound of newborns fighting inside the barn.
"Maria is probably in the house," Peter guessed. "Emmett, can you carry him?"
I felt myself being lifted gently. And then he was carrying me toward the porch, and I struggled, gasping in pain. I wasn't ready to speak to her.
"Calm down, Jazz," Peter warned me. "It won't help matters if she opens the door and you are having a panic attack."
I buried my face in my brother's shoulder, trying to calm myself.
He knocked on the door.
Almost immediately, a vampire in jeans and a light blue sweater answered. Huh. Last time I'd seen anyone with Maria, they'd been wearing petticoats and dresses and all that.
"We are here to see Maria," Peter said.
"And you are?"
"I am an ex-soldier of hers."
That seemed to be good enough for her, because she hurried inside, calling Maria's name.
"Peter?" She appeared in the doorway, eyes wide. To my surprise, there was no anger at the sight of him. "Oh, my… what has happened to you, my Jasper?" She stared at me.
"That's what we came to speak with you about," Peter said.
"Oh… well, please come in."
I'd never seen such kind behavior from her. Or her wearing clothing like she was. She was wearing jeans, boots, a light pink shirt, and an Aeropostle jacket.
Not releasing me, Emmett sat down on the couch with Peter next to him.
"Jasper has been very ill," Peter started. He proceeded to tell her the whole story of my illness. She listened attentively while I gazed at her, astonished. This was not the Maria I knew.
"… So we were wondering if we could get a sample of that venom from you."
Maria looked toward me. "May I see the injury?"
Emmett didn't even ask me. He just yanked up the hem of my shirt and showed her the injury. I winced. He was too rough.
"Hmm," she said thoughtfully. "Well, I can check my storage rooms. Ariana, Joslyn, come here!"
A vampire with long black hair came into the room, closely followed by a girl with shorter brown hair. "Miss Maria?"
"Go to my storage room in the barn. The one where the chicken coop was when humans owned this place. Check the stores of venom for one that matches this wound." She showed them.
"Yes ma'am." They darted out the door, and she called three more names- Shayla, Ethan, and Sally Anne, instructing them to go to her storage building in the woods by the river. How many did she have? I wondered.
Honestly, this was a little more like the Maria I remembered. It reassured me. At least she was not completely different and strange.
"We found six," Ariana said, coming through the door a little later. She had three small vials full of silver liquid in her hands, and Joslyn held the other three.
"Six!" Maria took the vials. "Well, at least you narrowed it down a bit," she murmured. "There are hundreds of vials in there."
I knew this part was going to hurt. But I wanted to be cured, so I let her do it. Carefully, she cut off a piece of my skin beside the bite, and I flinched. She let one drop from the first bottle fall into it. It dissolved immediately. "Not that one."
As it turned out, it wasn't any of the venoms that the girls had brought her.
She shoved the venom bottles back into their hands. "Put those back, and try the ones on the bookshelf in the barn loft."
(A/N Please try to remember that Maria has been fighting for hundreds of years. If she collects venom from some wounds from every fight, just think of how much she must have)
Carlisle came over to me and placed a bandage over the place where Maria had cut me. I watched, wishing I could go home.
Next Shayla, Ethan, and Sally Anne came. None of them had brought back the right one, either.
Finally, on their third trip, Ariana and Joslyn found the correct venom. Maria put the bottle in a Zip-lock bag and handed into Peter. "Take it back to Aro and cure my Major," she said quietly.
As we were leaving, she called out to Peter.
"Oh, Peter?"
"Yes?" He turned.
"Do try to save some of that for me. It could be very useful for punishments or newborn killing, you see."
"Of course, Maria." He did not look thrilled about the thought of returning here, but she spoke again.
"Just send it to me- I do not think Jasper can survive long enough to make the trip twice, and after all-" she smiled angelically- "He is the only reason why I did not destroy you for daring to come here."
And she was gone.
I almost panicked at the thought of her killing Peter, but they calmed me in time to get me in the car and start home.
We were finally on our way home.
I was more than ready.
Please go look at my new fic, Living in Fear. It is an I'm-sorry-my-updates-are-so-late gift. If you've been reading Lost and Found, there is a note in Living in Fear about why that is not being updated for a while. I should be ashamed...
Anyway, what did you think of their visit to Maria?
Omg, I am so not writing what i had in my journal. This fic was alot different in my journal, so now I think I've decided how this ends, but I am not exactly sure how to get there. :(